CHAIR —I declare open this public hearing of the Senate Select Committee on Superannuation and Financial Services. The hearing is part of the committee's inquiry into the effectiveness and efficiency of the current rules governing early access to superannuation benefits on existing compassionate and severe financial hardship grounds. Last month

CHAIR —Welcome, Ms Cullen. We invite you to talk briefly to your submission and then we will ask some questions. Would you like to make some comments on your submission? Ms Cullen —Yes. The Superannuation Complaints Tribunal was asked to respond to four questions, and I would like to make

CHAIR —Welcome, Mr Cassidy. I invite you to speak to your submission. Mr Cassidy —With my submission I provided a summary in relation to the questions. If you do not mind, I would like to spend five minutes reading that introduction and summary. Obviously, I will go with questions from

CHAIR —Welcome. Would you like to speak briefly to your submission. Ms Smith —In preparing the submission, we put your questions on our site and sought direct feedback from our members. Because of the shortness of time, we received in the order of 16 specific commentaries from 16 specific funds.

CHAIR —Welcome. Thank you for your submission and your interest in the issue. Ms Dyson —I would like to thank the committee for the opportunity to present the submission. It is certainly a vexed issue in terms of trying to balance the need to preserve superannuation benefits, whilst recognising that

CHAIR —With pleasure, I invite a representative from NSP Buck, Marie Sullivan, who has appeared before our committee before, to present evidence. Welcome, Marie. Do you have any comments you wish to make about the capacity in which you appear? Ms Sullivan —I am a solicitor and general manager of